Manchester City v Liverpool – Head To Head

Manchester City welcome Liverpool to the Etihad Stadium in what will be Liverpool’s first match since being crowned Premier League champions. The blues will give the reds the now traditional Guard of Honour prior to the match and City will be looking to set a marker down for next season by inflicting defeat on the reds and showing they are ready to fight for to win their crown back.

Over the years, this hasn’t been a fixture that the blues have been too successful in, so what do the stats say about this match?

City’s pre-Premier League form in this fixture wasn’t exactly stunning. Prior to the league’s inception in 1992, City had won just two out of twelve top league and cup matches and they weren’t exactly narrow defeats either.

Between August 1978 and April 1983, City lost five straight league matches 4-1, 4-0, 3-0 5-0 and 4-0 while losing a home League Cup tie 1-0 in January 1981. The blues then lost this fixture another four times between January 1987 and March 1991 – 1-0, 4-0, 4-1 and 3-0, with a solitary 1-0 victory on Boxing Day 1985 breaking up what would have been a dismal and unwanted record.

But a resurgent City side were unbeaten in the following six matches against the reds, winning two and drawing four, including that fateful 2-2 draw in May 1996 which saw the blues drop through the Premier League trap door.

The last twelve matches make for better reading for blues fans. City have lost two of the last twelve Premier League games and won six, including the last two home matches, which City won 2-1 and 5-0.

City’s longest winning streak is just four matches, achieved between December 1933 and March 1937. City went a bit goal crazy during that period, hammering the reds 6-0 and 5-1 in successive seasons and the 6-0 victory in September 1935 remains City’s biggest win over Liverpool at home.

The blues longest unbeaten run is seven matches, between September 1969 and September 1974. The blues were unbeaten in seven matches, winning four and drawing three.

City’s longest losing streak remains at the already mentioned six matches between August 1978 and April 1983, however their longest winless run against Liverpool stretches over seven matches between November 1948 and August 1962. During that run, City lost five straight home matches, before drawing the next two. City’s heaviest home defeat came in January 1940, when the reds won 7-3 at Maine Road.

Since their first meeting in September 1893, the blues have only managed to keep 22 clean sheets, while Liverpool have prevented the blues from scoring 26 times and the last goalless draw was in December 2007.

The two teams have met in Manchester outside the top flight on just two occasions – September 1893 and April 1896. That was in the second division and all matches between the two since then, apart from the War Leagues between 1940 and 1945, have been in the top flight or cup competitions.

There’s usually goals between these two sides, with City and Liverpool sharing around 316 goals between them in this fixture. Given the fact that both teams have scored 70+ in the Premier League alone, we’re not ruling out another goal fest tonight.